The Black Keys think Oasis have “transformed the continent”.
The Lonely Boy duo – made up of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney – played Manchester’s Sounds of the City festival last month, just two days before the Wonderwall group’s first homecoming gig at Heaton Park, and they were blown away by the “electric” atmosphere in the city, which they credited to the reunion between warring brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher.
Dan told The Sun newspaper: “The atmosphere was electric. Our audience was so up for it.
“I feel like they’ve transformed the continent. We’ve never seen anything like it.”
During their time in Manchester, Dan paid a visit to the Oasis Adidas store.
He said: “I had one of the black soccer jerseys made — Oasis on the front and AUERBACH on the back. Had to do it, man, they’re the kings.”
The duo wrote three songs with “chord lord” Noel back in 2023 and have also performed with Liam, so they couldn’t be happier for the pair about their reunion tour.
Dan said: “It was amazing. We just sat in a circle with our instruments and we worked things up from nowhere.
“Not too long after that we played a song with Liam [in Milan] and hung out with him afterwards. He gave us some really good advice about our setlist.
“Noel and Liam are both incredible — we’re really happy for them.”
The Black Keys regularly host Record Hang in Nashville, where they DJ from vinyl records, scouring record shops and online for obscure tracks, and they love still discovering new inspiration.
Patrick said: “We end up exposing ourselves to thousands of songs that somehow we’ve never heard.
“It’s really cool to be so deep into our career and uncovering all this incredible music. It’s totally reinvigorating — particularly when one of us finds a record that the other hasn’t heard and it’s a banger.”
The pair are still hugely passionate about music, both their own and other people’s but are “very sensitive” about what they listen to.
Dan said: “Pat and I were talking about this earlier — music can hypnotise you. You can use it for good or for evil. It’s a very powerful tool.”
Parick added: “It’s my biggest passion and it has been since I was 11.
“I also think about the delicate balance you need when you do it for a living. You’re taking the thing you love the most but you never want to ruin it for yourself.
“Dan and I are very sensitive about what we listen to. We were at a music festival in a spot in between seven stages. It sounded horrible. I said, ‘This is the kind of thing that could make me hate music’.”